Friday at San Diego Comic-Con, George R.R. Martin, executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and the cast of Game of Thrones sat down with Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd. The group chats about their reaction to the Emmy nominations, fan responses to the show, and of course, season four.

In the conversation, Benioff reveals that the fourth season is the “toughest production schedule” they’ve ever had, and teases:

We got more action, which is obviously more time consuming. It’s a brutal shooting season ahead. But if we can make it through, yeah, I think it’s going to surpass season three. The last 3 episodes, there’s so many scenes we’ve been waiting for so long to do. And it just gets more and more fun to write for these characters. After three years of doing it, we have that much more comfort to make everything uncomfortable for them. We’re very excited for it. Season five gives me nightmares, but [not season four].

And Weiss’s comment about the public’s response to the infamous Red Wedding?

Somebody was good enough to put together a compilation of fan reactions to the episode, and yeah that made us feel good to make so many people feel so bad.

The interviews are available on video at EW.com but Unsullied viewers may want to avoid watching the second video, to avoid potential spoilers.
Ours is the Fury: Honestly, nothing tops Red Wedding reaction vids for a laugh. The punishing production schedule Benioff refers to will be kicking into gear very soon, with shooting in Iceland beginning next week, in addition to the already-running Belfast filming.

As for Benoiff: I believe that him saying that the last 3 episodes contain long-awaited scenes confirms that episode 8 = Oberyn vs Gregor, episode 9 = “Stannis, Stannis, STANNIS!”, and episode 10 = the escape, only Cat and the Stoneheart reveal. And his season 5 comments are understandable, however I still like to think that they can pull it off without cutting out any major storylines and characters (ie keeping Quentyn, Griff and the Dornish plot) and without rushing through all of AFfC + ADwD in one season.

In the second video, he asks Michelle if she will be returning and she says she’ll have to leave that up to the ether to decide and she just smiles as if she doesn’t know. That is why I said Unsullied should skip the second video because Michelle makes a comment before her answer about people saying, “But you’re in the books!” etc as if she should be coming back. Too spoilerish.

They only said season five gives them nightmares because they have to splice 2 complete books together and put all the chapters in chronological order so they can keep proper timelines before they even start the scripting process…

That’s a huge amount of work! GRRM books are all thick back breakers with so much going on. I bet Mr Cogman will be working long hours next summer starting this process.

I feel the opposite. If a filmmaker/screenwriter always felt confident, they would never do their best work. AFFC/ADWD is not something to feel confident about and the fact that David Benioff realises the gigantic challenge ahead will only motivate him to work harder. It’s better than him saying, “We got this.”

I feel the opposite. If a filmmaker/screenwriter always felt confident, they would never do their best work. AFFC/ADWD is not something to feel confident about and the fact that David Benioff realises the gigantic challenge ahead will only motivate him to work harder. It’s better than him saying, “We got this.”

This. Just because it will be challenging, doesn’t mean it won’t turn out well.

Ours is the Fury:
I think Benioff and Weiss are just acknowledging the reality of the difficulty of combining ADWD/AFFC, making sure the timelines work out and the storylines fit well in terms of episodes and so on.

Ours is the Fury,
After my attempt to predict how the next few seasons will play out (which can be found here: http://tahu909.livejournal.com/1089.htmlWARNING: SPOILERS) I believe that the main challenge facing D&D that they are alluding to is the sheer number of storylines, and being able to service all of those storylines sufficiently without visiting 10 places each episode and making it feel like a clip show.

I think the older actors don’t understand the strong reactions fans have to being spoiled. Charles Dance and the actor who plays Pycelle have also nonchalantly dropped massive spoilers in these video interviews before, so I figure it’s an age divide thing. If anything, it’s the news sites who should be more strict about including spoiler warnings.

Yup, and they’re going to have Tyrion kill Tywin in episode three, Oberyn vs Gregor in episode four, Shae betray Tyrion in episode seven, Stonheart hang Pod and Brienne in episode eight, Stoneheart reveal herself to the Frey in episode nine and, as you say, the PW at the end of the season.

The main point I take from Season 5 being difficult is that they are NOT combining AFFC and ADWD into one season. Combining it all into one season and editing story arcs would not be a nightmare. Adapting the two books into a season-and-a-half or two seasons of story arcs would be more of a nightmare in my mind.

Strong hints from the online community and a vague whisper I heard from an insider at a con earlier this year point to a late-2014/early 2015 TWoW release, so I can see Season 5 (2015) and part of Season 6 (2016) cover AFfC and ADwD and a little bit of TWoW. The tricky part will be Seasons 7 and 8. TWoW part 2 and obviously some material from ADoS, but does anybody seriously expect ADoS to be released by 2018? I don’t see the series going 9 seasons, but it may just take that long or else an awful lot will be left out. I doubt they’ll try to fit Crows and Dragons into one season and keep it enjoyable, yet if they do it over two years, and HBO caps things off at 8 seasons, I don’t see how they can do justice to what we all suspect will be a killer of an ending. So to speak.

I can see the whole Quenten storline left out, probably the whole of the Kingsmoot can be summarized onscreen within one episode and we may never see Penny onscreen either. I also think the whole Arianne arc will be cut or minimized. But they will obviously have to include Griff/JonCon and their trip down the Rhoyne, and if I’m right, greyscale will play an important role in the story so there’s all of that, too. Where it will really get tricky is Daenerys’ story in Meereen. Obviouly the audience loves them some Dany and no doubt they’ll play that up…but at the risk of a terribly boring story. Then they’ll amp up For the Watch and hopefully some tasty pastry courtesy of House Manderly. So yeah, there’s enough material but the nightmare will be delivering a final product that isn’t meandering all over the place and that will hold an audience as firmly as the massive plot advancements of seasons 2 and 3.

Yup, and they’re going to have Tyrion kill Tywin in episode three, Oberyn vs Gregor in episode four, Shae betray Tyrion in episode seven, Stonheart hang Pod and Brienne in episode eight, Stoneheart reveal herself to the Frey in episode nine and, as you say, the PW at the end of the season.

Yup, and they’re going to have Tyrion kill Tywin in episode three, Oberyn vs Gregor in episode four, Shae betray Tyrion in episode seven, Stonheart hang Pod and Brienne in episode eight, Stoneheart reveal herself to the Frey in episode nine and, as you say, the PW at the end of the season.

There is no way Tyrion/Tywin event or the Oberyn vs Gregor fight will happen before the Joffery’s wedding Chronology of the show will follow the book.

“Season 5 gives me nightmares”, very interesting quote. I’m an Unsullied, but even as a non-book reader that’s something I’ve heard a lot of people say these days. Apparently the general consensus seems to be that season 4 will be the most epic and therefore best season so far, whereas season 5 might be rather boring due to a lack of “obvious plot climaxes”, as one of the producers (can’t remember which one) once put it.
If that will be the case, I really hope the audience will manage to put up with a “slower” and maybe somewhat dull season 5. That’s sort of my worst case scenario: ratings sky-rocketing during season 4, only to be plummeting dramatically after season 5, never to recover again which would put the show at risk of being cancelled. Then again, if the show is supposed to spread across 7 seasons, why would HBO cancel this late in the series and potentially anger the remaining viewers? And who knows, probably Benioff and Weiss will find a way to make season 5 just as exciting and entertaining as the others.

If the two latest books are condensed into a single season (which seems likely, though you never know), then it would have the potential to be the best season yet. I won’t get into spoilers, but it’s all the extraneous material that makes A Feast for Crows & A Dance with Dragons difficult to adapt, not the major story beats. Personally, I loved AFfC, but I’d consider ADwD my least favorite novel in the series. That’s mostly due to a lack of forward momentum for a good part of the book, but also because there was very little resolution provided.

In any case, I can see how adapting these two latest books will be a “nightmare” for the writers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will translate to a bad season of television. Quite the opposite, actually. It just means that the task of streamlining the ridiculous amount of characters and plot lines is going to be an incredibly difficult task, and one that will likely result in more major alterations to the story line than ever before. I’m fine with that, just as I’ve been fine with the majority of the changes that have had to be made in the transition from page to screen.

1 – The Battle of Castle Black, Stannis to the rescue, Ygritte’s death scene, Jon Snow is elected Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, and executes Janos Slynt.
2 – Lady Stoneheart reveal
3 – Gregor Clegane vs Oberyn Martell trial by combat
4 – Littlefinger callously kills Lysa, just after she admits she herself poisoned Jon Arryn on his orders; revealing that Littlefinger is the secret mastermind behind the entire War of the Five Kings.
5 – Tyrion kills Shae and Tywin, after it’s revealed that Tywin’s first “wife” Tysha was *not* a whore but his actual wife, Tywin’s just a monster who had his guards gang-rape an innocent girl because Tyrion dared to marry a commoner. Tywin does not, in the end, shit gold.

Vladimir Bolton:
“Season 5 gives me nightmares”, very interesting quote. I’m an Unsullied, but even as a non-book reader that’s something I’ve heard a lot of people say these days. Apparently the general consensus seems to be that season 4 will be the most epic and therefore best season so far, whereas season 5 might be rather boring due to a lack of “obvious plot climaxes”, as one of the producers (can’t remember which one) once put it.

It’s very simple:

Book 3 was so long, the longest book, that they cut it into two halves, which became Season 3 and Season 4. Thus the end of Season 4 will actually contain the “WHAM!” endings of Book 3.

I don’t blame the TV show for this, it’s just how the schedule worked out, but one of the most shocking things about the Red Wedding is that it occurred sort of in the middle of the book; it wasn’t near the climax at all, it was utterly unexpected to kill off that many characters….in the middle. Sort of like how when Renly died, as in the TV show it was sort of in the middle of the season/book.

So keeping that in mind, all of the WHAM! shocking moments happened at the END of the book.

On top of this, the story was originally planned as a trilogy of novels, but grew in the telling. The story of what was originally going to be “book one of three” expanded out into three novels……thus the end of Book 3, “A Storm of Swords”, is how the original first novel would have ended. As you can kind of tell its the climax of the War of the Five Kings (Robb’s death, etc.).

So “book 3″ got cut in half to make Season 3 and Season 4.

The problem is that the fourth novel got so long that George R.R. Martin had to split it into two other books, but the key point is that he split the two groups of characters: Book 4 “A Feast for Crows” focuses on events in the Seven Kingdoms, while Book 5 contains all of the storylines happening *at the same time* outside of the Seven Kingdoms (the Night’s Watch at the Wall, in the Free Cities, and Daenerys’ storyline in Slaver’s Bay).

This make a lot of sense when you actually read through them, particularly because the actions of some characters are shaped by the fact that they DO NOT know what is happening in other parts of the world, thus we the reader share their discomfort.

Anyway, the TV show said they’re just going to intercut them back together, so “Season 5″ is going to be the first half of Feast for Crows intercut with the first half of A Dance with Dragons.

The problem of course being that there isn’t much of a climax in the middle of these stories.

I’d directly compare this to how for Tolkien, “The Two Towers” book is divided between first an Aragorn/Gandalf/Merry/Pippin, while the second half follows Frodo and Sam *during the exact same time period*; it goes back to the beginning of the book but follows Frodo’s narrative this time around. The movie adaptation, understandably, said that works in a book but not a visual format, so they simply intercut the two storylines to show them as they both chronologically occurred (more or less).

The Dragon Demands,
One mistake in your explanation: the final chapters of AFfC happen chronologically in the middle of ADwD. The most natural way to do it would be to cover most-all of AFfC in season 5 as well as the first 1/2 of ADwD. Season 6 would then contain all of the remainder of those books, with TWoW stuff being started where necessary.

So assuming that they cut it that way season 5 should contain the climaxes from AFfC, while the storylines from ADwD set up stuff for season 6. This also works very well because all seasons need a balance between the story arcs that climax/end and the story arcs that set up the next season to keep people watching.

Kalamies- The beauty of the PW is that it’s what everyone has been eagerly anticipating for years, but at the same time, it’s abrupt and confusing and ends up with one of our favorite characters being blamed. There’s no “fuck yeah!” as Arya jumps out of the pie and stabs Joffrey (side note: best alternative universe storyline ever?). At the end of the day, it’s a seventeen year old boy being murdered in cold blood, and I hope the show has the guts to show how weird and awful the whole thing is.

Additionally, I hope they don’t immediately tell us that Littlefinger arranged it. The show should build up all the potential motives for characters who *could* have done it. When they intro the Red Viper, they should be sure to mention the people whom he’s poisoned. Roose Bolton could be there, and they could have him say earlier that he needs to be in King’s Landing to “take care of some small matter.” Margaery will be a suspect, of course, as will her grandmother, but I’d love them to even hint that Tyrion or Sansa might actually have done it.

So the episode ends with Sansa running out of the hall, Tyrion pouring out the wine, Margaery reaching for her husband, Joffrey choking, pointing, dying, and Cersei saying “arrest my brother!” Then black. Then the next episode begins immediately afterwards: Tyrion is bundled off to the dungeons, protesting his innocence. Sansa runs out of the Red Keep, meeting Dontos Hollard, and climbs down to the boat. At the end of the episode, they get to the ship, Littlefinger kills Dontos, and reveals the truth. By then we’ve practically forgotten about him, and to realize that he was pulling the strings all along is the second straight WTF moment in a row.

1. There are way too many characters and storylines. They’ll need to cut some of it.. and that will probably lead into more changes in future seasons.

2. The main characters arcs worked OK in the books.. but there’s no way they could get more than one season of Jon preparing for the arrival of the WW (we promise they ARE coming!!), Tyrion travelling through Essos, Daenerys ruling a city at the other end of the world, Arya training to become an assassin.. at the other end of the world, Brienne wandering through the countryside, and so on… You need to produce satisfying story arcs out of that, and that won’t be easy.

3. The “cool scenes” from those books are more expensive to produce than those of previous seasons: Drogon in the pit, massive army of wildlings coming to the other side of the Wall, Hardhome, Tyrion’s journey (storm, big cities, and so on), Victarion’s gigantic fleet (assuming he makes the cut), siege of Meereen (and the battle that will ensue), Cersei’s walk of shame, and so on…

4. GRRM told them roughly what he planned to do for te two ‘(or three?) last books.. but it’s just a rough draft really. There’s no doubt it will become harder for them to write for the show without having the huge canvas that were the printed books.

5. They’ll need to deal with “purists” crying and shouting at them whenever a change is made or a character is cut.

This. It’s funny because some of the ADWD stories will likely last all the way through season 6 (the North and the Wall for instance) whereas others will end mid-way (Kingslanding) and some would have nothing at all (the Vale). But through and through, I believe that ADWD will roughly occupy half of the season (with all the AFFC climaxes in season 5) and that the first quarter of TWOW will also be necessary to fill stories up for season 6.

What? Why would Tyrion kill Tywin before the PW? What would be the motivation? I think you’re relying far too heavily on the theme that big stuff happens in E9. Now that there’s an established formula I’m sure they want to mix it up again or else it will become tedious.

Styr may be merged with Sigorn, unless they plan on casting 2 Thenn leaders, so he may not die. It seems a bit like they are swapping the roles of Styr and Tormund. Shae’s death has been foreshadowed by Tyrion giving her that necklace. I’d be amazed if Symon Silvertongue is cast, though I suppose it would give a bit of Tyrion intrigue which people like.

My worry is that Tyrion’s nasty side has not been explored at all in the tv series, at least so far. So him murdering Shae has the potential to seem out of character. But, if he murders Symon Silvertongue, it would set things up more smoothly. But yeah, you may be right about Styr. And Rorge too is a possibility.

What? Why would Tyrion kill Tywin before the PW? What would be the motivation? I think you’re relying far too heavily on the theme that big stuff happens in E9. Now that there’s an established formula I’m sure they want to mix it up again or else it will become tedious.

Rorge, probably. Arya will stick a sword through him and Polliver at the inn. Not sure if we’ll get many more Freys – LS will probably just hang the two we already know in the show (Black Walder and Lame Lothar). Maybe Merrett, as a one-off cameo in a dumb Frey hat. I love those dumb Frey hats.

As for those on your list but not mine: Gregor doesn’t actually die until part way through Feast, so he will likely succumb to his wounds in season 5. I believe Locke will and his men will replace those who attack Brienne and co in season 5. It makes more sense that way from a character perspective. As for Symon Silvertongue, I don’t see why they would want/need/find time to introduce him, unless they make him replace Marillion in the Vale (although it would make more sense for that to be the Blue Bard on the basis of House Arryn’s colours), and even then he won’t actually die until season 5.

Not that much… her journey would start around episode 5, and that leaves her the second half of the season of travelling… it could even end up with her encounter with Lady Stoneheart (as a finale scene).

Not that much… her journey would start around episode 5, and that leaves her the second half of the season of travelling… it could even end up with her encounter with Lady Stoneheart (as a finale scene).

But then she’ll have to sit on her ass and do nothing for a whole season. And there was a lot of good stuff for her to do in KL which will now not make it in (such as her investigating where Sansa went and finding a lead as opposed to just walking around and asking random people). I was hoping to see her set off with Pod and Gendry, which would be a great segue into season 5. If this is true, it seems D&D might be making ADWD and AFFC into one season after all.

Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Brienne doesn’t really have much to do at King’s Landing so it would make sense for her to depart on her travels around episode 5 then spend the second half in the Riverlands.
And I’m thinking that these new Iceland locations will be areas of the Riverlands. Northern Ireland has passed for the Riverlands so far but these locations will provide an exciting new look and add some variation.

Owen: The beauty of the PW is that it’s what everyone has been eagerly anticipating for years, but at the same time, it’s abrupt and confusing and ends up with one of our favorite characters being blamed. There’s no “fuck yeah!” as Arya jumps out of the pie and stabs Joffrey (side note: best alternative universe storyline ever?). At the end of the day, it’s a seventeen year old boy being murdered in cold blood, and I hope the show has the guts to show how weird and awful the whole thing is.

Yes, best alternate universe storyline!

Regarding the PW, I also hope that the scene conveys the horror and confusion of it, particularly Cersei’s anguish at watching her son die. The sense of justice that some fans may feel has to be immediately tempered by Tyrion’s arrest. I also hope that the delay the reveal of who was responsible for Joffrey’s death. I am really looking forward to seeing this onscreen.

Books 4 and 5 run mostly concurrently, each one focussing on a different set of characters. The last 1/3 or so of Book 5 runs past the end of Book 4 and sees some Book 4 characters. For this reason it is not possible to treat them separately. Season 4 will have some Book 4/5 material, and Season 5 may well have some (as yet unpublished…) Book 6 material.

gosensgo,moophasa,
The chances of seeing any substantial amount of AFfC/ADwD material in season 4 (aside from Brienne’s storyline, and possibly Bran’s (although I believe that they have invented stuff planned for Bran)) is slim to none, as are the chances of seeing TWoW material in season 5.

I was just flipping through a couple of the later Sansa chapters in SoS and I forgot about Dontos insisting she wear the hairnet with the poisoned onyx (amethyst?) and then her discovering it missing. I forgot that little bit. I hope they keep the issue over whodunnit open even after they arrest Tyrion. More interesting if they have Shae insist on it — I’d like to see her do more than merely react to the events around her

Ser Tahu:The Dragon Demands,
One mistake in your explanation: the final chapters of AFfC happen chronologically in the middle of ADwD. The most natural way to do it would be to cover most-all of AFfC in season 5 as well as the first 1/2 of ADwD. Season 6 would then contain all of the remainder of those books, with TWoW stuff being started where necessary.

So assuming that they cut it that way season 5 should contain the climaxes from AFfC, while the storylines from ADwD set up stuff for season 6. This also works very well because all seasons need a balance between the story arcs that climax/end and the story arcs that set up the next season to keep people watching.

No. While entirely accurate that there isn’t a one for one correspondence, this was not my intention; basically book 5 finishes with a single chapter each for the major POV characters from book 4 just to catch us up on what they’re doing.

FUNDAMENTALLY, when explaining the entire concept to people who haven’t read the books, this would only confuse them, so I gave them the short version.

In no way in your rambling, irrational post did you explain how the heck it is “natural” for most of A Feast for Crows to be in Season 4.

Look, we don’t know how they’re going to break it up specifically, some things might bet moved around a bit (the Jaime/Brienne scenes at the end of Season 2 were actually moved up from book 3 because they were worried Jaime just doesn’t do anything in book 2).

A-Gone: Who’s the con whisperer ? Is it someone you trust ? Because the “online community hints” – come on….

The con-whisperer wasn’t anybody particularly high up the food chain, but rather a person in managing editorial who was told to “clear the decks” as early as October 2014, which was the tentative RTP (release to print) as of earlier this spring. This person indicated anywhere from that point forward 6-8 months is likely. Who knows what has changed in the interim, but that was the rough schedule that was mentioned. The only other hint dropped at the time was that certain divergent storylines will come together, but beyond that I was told nothing else, sadly.

Can I believe this person? Who knows. It was a chance meeting in a casual setting and we were talking about the industry in general before the subject of ASoIAF came up.

The battle at Castle Black, the siege of the Wall (which is most likely going to have fight scenes in two episodes, assuming that D&D actually treat it like a siege), Oberyn vs Gregor and the Inn at the Crossroads. Then based on how they have set things up there will likely also be a fight between YarAsha’s forces and the Dreadfort, and my personal theory is that Bran and co will be saved by Coldhands in a similar way to the way he saved Sam in the books (ie they get attacked by a group of wights), and there will probably be a battle at Meereen (Yunkai in the show played out similarly to Meereen in the books, so I expect that the opposite may occur in season 4). And then there are a lot of action sequences that aren’t fight scenes, such as Joffrey’s death, Balon’s death, Lysa’s death and Tyrion’s escape. So yeah, overall this should be the most action packed season.

While D&D may be worried about season 5, I don’t think they’re worried about the amount of action. There should be plenty, just not as wild as season 4. Balancing the POV storylines across a couple books on the other hand… Mr. Cogman should be busy indeed.

I was just flipping through a couple of the later Sansa chapters in SoS and I forgot about Dontos insisting she wear the hairnet with the poisoned onyx (amethyst?) and then her discovering it missing.I forgot that little bit.I hope they keep the issue over whodunnit open even after they arrest Tyrion.More interesting if they have Shae insist on it — I’d like to see her do more than merely react to the events around her

Yes, I hope that these elements – including Lady Olenna adjusting the hairnet – are maintained. Part of the brilliance of Joffrey’s death scene in the books is the “WTH just happened” aspect of it.

What I’m waiting to see (and a little bit worried about) is the Aegon storyline. I hope by the time the show is made, we know for certain that he is a fake, or get a doubtless proof that he is real. That way, D&D can work around introducing this whole arc in a more tv-viewer-friendly way.I really disliked this plot in the book, as it seems he comes out of nowhere, and even starts winning some. Which is fine, but seems a little bit too much for a character we just met. Especially when there has been no clear hint of him being alive, and in the tv show no mention (until S4 I guess, but still) of him.He might have lost some readers, adding plot lines of that sort, and I hope they won’t loose viewers. And I’m very excited to see what they do with Book 4 & 5 so I can like them like I should have when I read them !!

On the other hand, I’m part of those who’d be disappointed if they left out the Kingsmoot or Quentyn.

Wow, that was an amazing interview. Before reading that, I was rather indifferent to the recasting to Ian Whyte, but now I must say I really do wish Conan was brought back. His genuine interest in the series and his thought process behind playing a character alone is incredible. He seems like a great guy. Not to take anything away from Ian Whyte, as I don’t know much about him.

Yup, and they’re going to have Tyrion kill Tywin in episode three, Oberyn vs Gregor in episode four, Shae betray Tyrion in episode seven, Stonheart hang Pod and Brienne in episode eight, Stoneheart reveal herself to the Frey in episode nine and, as you say, the PW at the end of the season.

This can only mean one thing: The PW will be retroactively added to the end of Season 3.

I think the reason he said season 5 gives him nightmares is not just because they have to put the chapters in order(and yes im sure them and cognan will be using Sean T. Collins book order as reference) but also a lot more POV character in book four and five they have to follow around. That means more locations, more shooting and trying to get the shooting done in less time. Figuring out the plot lines they want to follow or make up to help translate books to film. and probably trying to find a good spot in the middle of books Four and five to stop and have a huge climax. Excpectially if they keep the penultimate episode the highly climactic episode and the finally kind of starting new plots for the next season.its going to be more tricky because theres not a lot of things they can use in the books. So they might have to exagurate some plots to make them more climactic then normal. GRRM is a brilliant writer and most of his Chapters end in Climaxe but nothing quite like Neds beheading, blackwater, or redwedding in the middle of the two books.

It didn’t seem so wth to me. I remember reading her receive the hair net and being excited because I remembered the description if the crystals from the prologue. When Olenna straightened her hair, I knew what was about to go down. Now what happens afterward…

I can’t believe that not only is he willing to reprise the role of Gregor but he wants to and they have not asked him back. WTF D&D? Someone needs to start a petition, it’s not too late to get Conan back for S4.

I can’t believe that not only is he willing to reprise the role of Gregor but he wants to and they have not asked him back. WTF D&D? Someone needs to start a petition, it’s not too late to get Conan back for S4.

You have to understand that they cast Ian Whyte and they have a certain commitment to him. It wouldn’t be very nice to hire someone as a substitute for one season and then dump him and use him for creatures only. Conan sealed the deal when he went to shoot the Hobbit (which is great and awesome for him), and D&D had to find a replacement. Let’s give Ian Whyte a chance since he’s what we’ve got and let’s hope he’s armored from head to toe I a way that makes him look bulky and not just tall.

Ser Osis of Liver: The con-whisperer wasn’t anybody particularly high up the food chain, but rather a person in managing editorial who was told to “clear the decks” as early as October 2014, which was the tentative RTP (release to print) as of earlier this spring. This person indicated anywhere from that point forward 6-8 months is likely. Who knows what has changed in the interim, but that was the rough schedule that was mentioned. The only other hint dropped at the time was that certain divergent storylines will come together, but beyond that I was told nothing else, sadly.

Can I believe this person? Who knows. It was a chance meeting in a casual setting and we were talking about the industry in general before the subject of ASoIAF came up.

A person in managing editorial sounds better than I expected. Thanks for this.
Storylines coming together ? Daenerys in Westeros, maybe ? Now I can’t wait…

I vaguely remember, prior to season 3, Jack Gleeson saying that he was quitting acting overall after this (season 3) of GoT. That is why I was surprised he didn’t die already… and since he didn’t, if his interest in quitting is the same, he’ll probably be killed off early in season 4 so he can retire as he wishes, no? Or did he “change his tune” somewhere along the line about his career desires?

I just want to see an epic duel. If they fix Ian up and make him look muscular then it’ll work. I just remember the scene in season 2, Ian came to pick whoever was next to get tortured… It really made me laugh because Tywin looked more broad and muscular then The Mountain when they were standing next to each other… D&D need to fix that, if they don’t and we get a skinny Mountain fighting the Red Viper they will make an epic climatic scene a big joke IMO.

I really don’t think Ian Whyte is as skinny as he appeared. If you notice in season 2, he had pretty loose-fitting mail with no pauldrons or shoulder-pads, giving him the illusion of being skinnier (no idea why they would do this). Now Conan Stevens is definitely a bulky dude, but go back to season 1 and look at how bulky his armor is as well. I’m confident that if they properly outfit Whyte, he will look just fine.

I have a different problem with TV Gregor. Do non-readers perceive him to be as monstrous as book readers do? I’m not getting savage, cruel monster from TV Gregor; we haven’t seen enough of him or of his deeds (not that I really want to see some of those scenes). He wasn’t in S3 at all. In a story with many cruel people (Joffrey, Ramsay, Lord Walder), I don’t know that TV Gregor stands out. And that, for me, could lessen the impact of the combat with Oberyn.

I don’t understand why bigger dragons mean bigger costs.Its not like you have to feed the bigger CGI models more or anything.

Because they’ll likely have to create new models with much more detail. It also becomes harder to animate the bigger they grow and just from the point of cinematography it’s bound to complicate things. But not too much, I think. Only the big moments are going to be significantly more difficult, but then, they always are.

I’m no expert and maybe they won’t cost more but one would think the bigger they get the more it would cost because they would be involved in scenes where they have greater impact on their surroundings.

For instance, an example of sheer scale impacting cost would be:

Drogon looks pretty badass diving and catching a fish then throwing it in the air, burning it, then eats it. That scene was Hollywood movie quality and I bet cost a ton.

Drogon is now bigger and flys from above to ambush, burn and start to consume a goat. I would think that would cost more because the scale of Drogon has increased, the scale of the environment he affects has increased, and the detail would have to increase because when things get bigger you see more detail.

In season 3 Dragon lands on a boat and Dany strokes his neck. I can’t imagine the CGI for when Dany stares down Drogon and mounts him costing the same as stroking his neck.

Maybe I’m wrong and it’ll cost the same but I’ve learned from the past that whenever you increase the scale you also increase the cost.

Flying dragons, probably little difference, stationary show dragons, probably little difference, stunt dragons- yikes. The more the dragons are interacting with props, sets, and actors the more difficult and expensive the CGI. It’s the difference between a parked car, driving a car, a car chase and exploding a car. All those scenes have cars in them, true, but the last two take a lot more effects and film time, as well as having less oops space for re-filming. A lot of our dragon scenes thus far have minimal interaction with notable exceptions being the mother of dragons scene, House of the Undying (and notice how Pyat Pree and the dragons aren’t in the same frame during the roasting) and Kraznys with the leash.

So, I guess my arguement is that it’s not just that size might be different but that they need Mass slaughter in the fighting pit, Dany riding Drogon, the whole Quentin releasing Viserion and Rhaegal fiasco and a number of more intereactive scenes. If it was just flying dragons cost problems would likely be minimal.

I don’t understand what you’re saying. Dontos says the amethysts are from Asshai. True purple in sunlight. Cressen complicates the explanation of their origin, but it comes down to the same thing. From Asshai, a deep purple. Called the strangler because it chokes you. The prologue from ACoK supports it being the stones, and Tears of Lys don’t choke you to death. You die more slowly.

I don’t understand what you’re saying. Dontos says the amethysts are from Asshai. True purple in sunlight.Cressen complicates the explanation of their origin, but it comes down to the same thing. From Asshai, a deep purple. Called the strangler because it chokes you. The prologue from ACoK supports it being the stones, and Tears of Lys don’t choke you to death. You die more slowly.

Ah hang on, you’re right and I got the names confused.

BUT I maintain that the crystal that killed Joffrey was not really amethyst. It was the same “Strangler” that Cressen tried to use on Melisandre. It just looks like amethyst, meaning Dontos could be lied to (or maybe he knew and lied to Sansa – we don’t know how much Littlefinger told him). Again, read the prologue of ACoK, the read the wedding chapter. The strangler is a Chekhov’s Gun. The death scene of Varamyr (I think it was him with the second life scene?) is also a Chekhov’s Gun (cue Jon’s fate).

Ser Osis of Liver: The con-whisperer wasn’t anybody particularly high up the food chain, but rather a person in managing editorial who was told to “clear the decks” as early as October 2014, which was the tentative RTP (release to print) as of earlier this spring. This person indicated anywhere from that point forward 6-8 months is likely. Who knows what has changed in the interim, but that was the rough schedule that was mentioned. The only other hint dropped at the time was that certain divergent storylines will come together, but beyond that I was told nothing else, sadly.

Based on GRRM’s own progress reports, a release in late 2014 seems highly implausible. 6-8 months on from that is more possible, but I would still not think likely. I’d be surprised if we saw the book much before Christmas 2015.

It’s worth noting that marketing did get ADWD wrong. They were prepping covers, blurbs and marketing plans as early as 2007-08, and the book still didn’t come out until 2011, so they’re as prone to being wrong about this stuff as anyone else (including GRRM).

I can’t believe that not only is he willing to reprise the role of Gregor but he wants to and they have not asked him back. WTF D&D? Someone needs to start a petition, it’s not too late to get Conan back for S4.

I get the impression HBO is pretty unforgiving of people who do other projects, even if it’s for understandable reasons. So Conan seems to have thought his schedule could accomodate GoT, SPARTACUS and THE HOBBIT and was surprised when HBO thought otherwise. As far as we know, HBO would not give Clive Mantle a commitment on when he’d be needed for Season 2, so he took up other work with a firmer commitment in the meantime (as understandably you’d do, as a jobbing actor) and HBO seemed to react as if he’d burned all his bridges. I hope this isn’t the case and he returns in a future season (and the Umbers suddenly being mentioned again in Season 3 gives me some hope they will).